{"id":384,"date":"2006-06-04T19:17:21","date_gmt":"2006-06-05T01:17:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gardnercampbell.net\/blog1\/?p=384"},"modified":"2006-06-04T19:17:21","modified_gmt":"2006-06-05T01:17:21","slug":"downes-on-teaching","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gardnercampbell.net\/blog1\/downes-on-teaching\/","title":{"rendered":"Downes on teaching"},"content":{"rendered":"

Oook writes admiringly<\/a> of this post from Stephen Downes<\/a>, so I immediately went to read it. I agree wholeheartedly with 50% of what Stephen has written, and disagree violently with the other half.<\/p>\n

In terms of the way people live their lives, it may be true that there’s no point to argumentation. But that’s regrettable, and it’s the fault of people, not of argumentation. That’s another way of saying that argumentation should *not* be pointless.<\/p>\n

Polemic may be pointless, in that it merely solidifies convictions on both sides of the debate, and perhaps bullies a few others into taking the speaker’s\/writer’s side. But polemic is not the same thing as argumentation.<\/p>\n

I fully agree that cognitive apprenticeship is at the heart of real school. But reason, rigorous argumentation, must be there as well. As should hilarity, passion, dogged commitment, and a richly integrative vision.<\/p>\n

If all we can do is explain our beliefs to each other, how are we to learn? Or perhaps Stephen has brought the notion of argumentation in through the back door, so to speak, in his notion of a true, honest, and forthright explanation. Does not the very act of communication imply a request that we consider his statement and, if we judge it sound (not just agreeable), agree with it or learn from it? Picking up on Ron’s comment on Stephen’s post, I too hope that my students will not simply say “that’s what Dr. C. believes” but will actually engage with it, argue their own position, and teach me something in response. There have been several occasions in which my students’ arguments about topics of class discussion have caused me to change my mind in some fundamental ways. And of course I seek to change their minds as well, when that’s appropriate, always holding in our class meta-mind the larger principles of openness, fairness, and rigorous analysis<\/em>.<\/p>\n

I understand that by responding to Stephen’s post I have in some respects failed the test, though in writing that I’m being harsher than I feel. I do think, however, that the mind and meta-mind I’m trying to articulate form the paradoxical, vital reality of human interaction.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Oook writes admiringly of this post from Stephen Downes, so I immediately went to read it. I agree wholeheartedly with 50% of what Stephen has written, and disagree violently with the other half. In terms of the way people live … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-384","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4bHwM-6c","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gardnercampbell.net\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gardnercampbell.net\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gardnercampbell.net\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gardnercampbell.net\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gardnercampbell.net\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=384"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.gardnercampbell.net\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gardnercampbell.net\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gardnercampbell.net\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gardnercampbell.net\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}